Pelicans Have No Choice But to Trade Zion Williamson to Kickstart New Era

The New Orleans Pelicans must end the Zion Williamson era regardless of the trade return.

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The New Orleans Pelicans are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they are 2-15 and at the bottom of the Western Conference. On the other, they don't control their 2026 first-round pick, taking away their obvious reasons to pivot and tank this season. Even if it doesn't have any draft lottery implications, however, New Orleans has to rebuild and kickstart the new era of Pelicans basketball. And this can't include Zion Williamson.

Pelicans Can't Overthink Obvious Zion Williamson Decision

Over the last seven years, the relationship between Williamson and the Pelicans have soured to a point of no return. It's difficult to imagine how the two sides could build a fruitful relationship that is mutually beneficial. There is also very little reason to keep Williamson around when the future of the franchise obviously belongs to Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears.

Queen and Williamson are similar players. Offense-first big men who need the ball in their hands to be effective with shaky defense and shooting. Their long-term fit is questionable and it behooves the Pelicans to find better fits to build around Fears and Queen.

This was painfully obvious in the Mavericks game. Upon his return from injury absence, Williamson was an afterthought. The offense ran through Queen, and Williamson ended up taking only nine shots. With Fears and Queen handling the ball, Williamson didn't have a place to be on the offense and ended up mostly spotting up on the corner, not getting defended. This is not only a bad use of Williamson's skill set, but it also messed up the Pelicans' spacing. If Zion is not going to be a primary, on-ball creator, he is not a very valuable player.

The Pelicans may be hesitant towards trading Williamson while his trade value is as low as it is now. This is a common mistake franchises make that they regret afterwards. There is absolutely no guarantee that Williamson's trade value will go higher from here. It is equally likely that his trade value will continue to fall for the duration of his contract.

It may be painful to move on from your franchise player without getting a haul in return. But, there is no point in delaying the inevitable. Williamson-Pelicans relationship has run its course, and sooner the franchise accepts it, sooner they can get on with the next phase of their rebuild.